Hugo A. Bernatzik studied ethnology, psychology, and anthropology at
the University of Vienna. In 1925, he traveled to Egypt and Upper Sudan
where he began seriously photographing people in their traditional environment.
Subsequent extended trips throughout Africa, Southeast Asia, and the South
Pacific provide us with an incredible early look at the many people and
places he encountered. He fell ill on his last trip to Morocco and died
March 9, 1953 from a tropical disease, at the age of fifty-six.

The vast, open space of southern Sudan was, in 1927, one of the most
remote places in Africa. The inhospitable nature of the environment also
reflected the difficulty in photographing the inhabitants. Bernatzik found
it hard to gain the trust and confidence of his subjects, oftentimes having
to snap shots surreptitiously, or resorting to making payments of trade
goods to local chiefs, which enabled him to shoot within the local communities.